“We are joking, it was a tease,” CNN Public Relations wrote to POLITICO, via Twitter.

“It was simply a tease (posing a question) leading up to a segment with our political contributors—when Wolf [Blitzer] specifically said no one thinks this will be a career ender,” CNN spokesperson Edie Emery later told POLITICO via email.

Judge for yourself whether Blitz was playing for laughs. I confess, as I was writing this post this morning, I thought maybe I was being the teensiest bit unfair in indicting the media for peeing themselves over Rubio’s quick-sip. Sure, they had devoted thousands of times more coverage to it than it deserved, but they weren’t really “taking it seriously.” Then I saw the AP’s article, and then I saw this. Vindication.

Rubio’s still having fun with it too:

Picked up over 13,000 new followers on #twitter since last night! Im going to start drinking #water in the middle of all of my speeches!

Blowback

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The real problem with the speech was that he promoted affirmative-action and Medicare as good examples of big-government.

I am a fan of Rubio. But he needs to take a stand and stop trying to walk the line between TP and Republican. Make a choice. He is going to be forced to insult evangelical hard-liners one day and they will not forgive him. He needs to be honest about his beliefs about the party rubes…of which he is not.

JetBoy on February 13, 2013 at 8:18 PM

Your concerns are cosmetic. Marco Rubio’s real challenges are based in extremism. That is to say he will be opposed vociferously and ethnically from the right. You know this. He pretends to believe in the same dead-end extremist ideas as TP-radicals. But he is not a radical. He’s a performer, a good one.

I hope he pulls ahead of the extremist crowd soon enough to avoid conservative Birthers, bigots and anti-Hispanic loudmouths.

“I figured I was better off just taking that water and taking the hit for it then being unable to pronounce my words. It’d been a long day at work, we’d already done an 18-minute recording in Spanish — and you know, my mouth got dry, what can I say? But I was happy overall with what we were able to deliver.”

The logistics of the entire Spanish pandering speeches is questionable. Was the English version live? Will they pre-record a Spanish version earlier in the day for all his major speeches?

You nailed it CW: Most Americans have forgotten that there was always a “Aristocracy vs Peasant” class.

In Mexico & Cuba, it was the Castilians vs Indians, in the Caribbean, it was mostly “Día vs noche” (Light skinned vs Dark Skinned)…Not exactly unlike now, but it was a hell of a lot rougher then as compared to even now.

If i had to fault Rubio on *anything* it’ll be delivering any response in *any* language other than English.

OTOH, I feel that way about *any* candidate or officeholder….English has been and will be the language of the US.

Does this mean you can’t have *some* documentation for other languages? Sure, but once you devolve into a Tower of Babel and not encourage a standardize communication for the citizens, you make people LESS than Americans.

Dealt with a number of Cubans over the years, in some pretty awful parts of the world, too. One phrase comes to mind, told to me by a very senior Cuban military officer…when asking how one is doing,the Cuban reply was often “Pasando para el blanco.” said with a smile and chuckle.

Even the most staunch Commie Cuban could not ignore that little divide between light and dark.

Just a little preview of what the Marxist press has in store for anyone who tries to take on that drunken old hag Shrillery in 2016. She’ll be falling down piss drunk again with a martini in each hand, and they’ll still be talking about Rubio’s “career-ending” drink of water. The only thing worse than that? The voting public will buy it. All of it.

Rubio’s reply, when questioned by Georgie Boy on ABC this morning was spot on and I doubt he’ll be asked about it again. Just in case you missed it, when asked about the drink he laughed and replied, “It’s Gods way of reminding you you’re human.”. The pity is God is reminding Rubio, who seems to know it, and not Obama, who believes he’s on the same level with God.

It did look awkward the way Rubio reached for the water and I knew the nabobs in the media would make a big deal of it. Awkwardly reaching for a water bottle is not acceptable and should be mocked. I mean, it’s not like he said corpseman or 57 states or blamed a terrorist attack on a lame movie, or called a terrorist attack workplace violence or anything of that nature.

Maybe Rubio was thinking “Ugh, another bottle of McCain’s water that I’ve got to carry.”

I thought that his speech was ok, lot’s of platitudes and light on actual ideas, but that’s to be expected in a Sotu rebuttal.

I like Rubio. However, if he wasn’t a dream-act, amnesty supporter, I’d like him more.

3) An overzealous, overprotective “fan base” support similar to Sarah Palin

JetBoy on February 13, 2013 at 8:18 PM

Of course, Rubio’s going to have an overzealous and overprotective fan base, ready to slap down any criticism as coming from overzealous Palinistas. Just like Romney had before he got his ass handed to him.

Maybe it’s more “anti-republican” than “low information” voters. Then again, were they already anti-republican, or does the media make them that way. I’d say the sheep are just going where they’re told.

Ok…this is all just absurd.
But slightly off topic…
what was the silver set in front of Boehner during the SOTU?
Maybe some official speaker stamp thing?
It wasn’t a fancy silver water setting, was it?

If a potential candidate is disqualified four years out because he took a drink of water while giving a speech on television then we are no longer a serious nation of serious people. We are frivolous, absurd, and shallow and little more than an example of Orwellian idiocy, ignorance, stupidity, and authoritarianism. In the past our enemies called us decadent.

Considering all that is precisely what the US has become… Yes, it could be a career-ender.

If i had to fault Rubio on *anything* it’ll be delivering any response in *any* language other than English.

OTOH, I feel that way about *any* candidate or officeholder….English has been and will be the language of the US.

Does this mean you can’t have *some* documentation for other languages? Sure, but once you devolve into a Tower of Babel and not encourage a standardize communication for the citizens, you make people LESS than Americans.

Oh, I can’ tell you how much of a relief it is to find out this was all a joke. I mean really, can you imagine actually having a water drinker running for office?
Anywho kudows to CNN to uncover this “joke”. Big ole CNN slow clap and a tear maybe.
The most trust name in ruse.

Is it too late to level the racism card against lily-white limousine liberals who go after the Hispanic guy for not being as sophisticated as they are?

I watched a clip of Jon Stewart, who was talking about something-or-other, while pulling a gag throughout the bit where he kept drinking because he was so sweaty and hot. Camera would cut to him eating tortilla chips– because RACISM– and say something like, “Oh, I’m so stupid to be eating these salty tortillas when I’m on the air! How unbelievably stupid of me!” TORTILLAS = HISPANIC = RACISM.

How would Stewart have responded had it been Obama? Eating salty [insert African-American soul food example here]? Of course not. It’s amazing what one can get away with if one simply assents that Republicans are evil.